Most people who want to lose weight have heard about the cabbage soup diet at least once in their life. This diet supposedly helps you to miraculously drop 10-15 pounds in 7 days.  Many people when they first hear about this diet believe that it is “new” or “revolutionary” or even that it’s some sort of “secret” diet.  When in actuality, none of the above is true.

There are a lot of misconceptions about this diet, including the origins.  Some sources claim that the diet was created by a famous doctor; some sources attribute it to respectable hospitals, etc…The diet did not come from a famous doctor or hospital.  The true origins of this diet are unknown to this day.

This diet seems to have first surfaced in the 1980’s.  It spread quickly by fax machine.  Once the internet arrived, it quickly spread that way.  This is one of those fad diets that seems like it will never die or go away.

What is the cabbage soup diet?

The cabbage soup diet is a 7 day eating plan.  The diet, as the name suggests, focuses around a soup which is comprised mainly of cabbage.

The proposed eating plan is :

Day 1 – Cabbage soup and any type of fruit that you would like to eat, except for bananas.

Day 2 – Cabbage soup and any vegetables that you care to eat.  You may also have a baked potato that has a small amount of butter on it.

Day 3 – Cabbage soup plus any fruits or vegetables that you care to eat, with the exception of potatoes or bananas.

Day 4 – Cabbage soup and bananas.  You may eat up to 8 bananas.  You may also drink as much skim milk as you want too.

Day 5 – Cabbage soup and beef.  You may have up to 20 ounces of beef this day along with the cabbage soup.  You may also consume up to 6 tomatoes.

Day 6 – Cabbage soup and unlimited beef.  This day you can have as much beef as you care to eat.  You can also have as many vegetables as you want, except for potatoes.

Day 7 – Cabbage soup and brown rice.  You may also have any vegetables that you want this day, except potatoes.  You may drink unsweetened fruit juice this day too.

It should be noted that you may eat as much of the cabbage soup that you want on any of the days. You must eat the cabbage soup at least 3 times per day.  It should also be pointed out that there are some other variations of this diet.

The above may not be the exact cabbage soup diet that you may have stumbled upon.  The main ingredients usually consist of the following:  cabbage, onion, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, and seasonings.  The ingredients for the cabbage soup also tend to vary.

Does this diet work?

Yes and no.  The diet can work, if you actually stick to it for the 7 days.  You are severely limiting your calorie intake.  Given that you have to eat the same thing daily, will probably tend to make you want to eat less of the soup, which will even further restrict your daily calorie intake.

If you’re expecting the weight loss to be long term, don’t.  Most of the weight you lose from this diet will be water weight, not fat.  Once you resume your normal eating habits, the weight you lost will return.  In fact, it is probable that you will not only gain the weight you lost while being on this diet, but you may even gain more weight.  You could wind up heavier than before you started this diet after you resume your normal eating habits.

Is this diet safe?

No, it is not.  It is highly recommended that you don’t go on the cabbage soup diet.  This diet is not nutritionally sound.  You can actually become mal-nourished while on this diet.  You should never eat under 1200 calories, unless you’re being directed by a doctor.  This diet can make you come dangerously close to consuming less than 1200 calories.  Even though it is only a week, it is highly recommended you don’t try this diet.

The cabbage soup diet lives on because there will always be an allure and an attraction to a diet that will help you to lose weight rapidly.  The cabbage soup diet is not nutritionally sound nor will give you long term weight loss benefits at all.  There are many other safe, nutritionally sound, diets out there that will help you to lose weight quickly and easily, if you put the effort into them.

Food is a necessity in our lives.  Without food we would not be able to perform our daily activities. Our muscles would wither, our nervous system would fail. We would die of starvation without it. We all need food.  But what is your relationship with food? Are you eating for the right reasons?

WHAT IS EMOTIONAL EATING?

Are you  eating whenever you are lonely or sad? Does it satisfy and calm an emotional event? Seeing food as more than just a source of energy and enjoying it simply for the satisfaction it gives is not wrong. In fact science shows that food can promote good feelings by chemical reactions caused in our brains. What IS a problem is when an individual cannot experience pain, anxiety, joy or even boredom without turning to food as means of dealing with those feelings, or they are obsessed with food, weight and dieting.

Emotional eaters turn to food as a source of distraction from dealing with feelings. However, eating these foods leads to feelings of guilt which can only be soothed with more eating, restrictive dieting, excessive exercise or purging.

Emotional eaters tend to value themselves based on their weight and how closely they’ve stuck to their ‘ideal’ diet. Because of this distorted relationship with food, foods are labeled “GOOD” and “BAD”. Emotional eating can lead to serious eating disorders and depression.

HOW DO I KNOW IF I’M AN EMOTIONAL EATER?

Do you turn to food for reasons other than hunger? Are you obsessed with thoughts of food – whether you plan to eat it or are concentrating on restricting yourself from eating it?

Do you regularly try diets and fail – leading to guilt and further over eating? Do you think about or attempt to purge excess food by throwing up or using laxatives? Do you exercise compulsively when you think you’ve eaten too much?

HOW DO I OVERCOME EMOTIONAL EATING?

Since emotional eating is caused by looking to food as a coping strategy for emotional distress dieting can actually create more problems. When the emotional eater fails to stick to a diet they suffer feelings of guilt that can only be soothed with more food and in turn, more guilt or punishment.

Instead of trying to focus on what they are eating, the emotional eater needs to learn new skills for coping with stressful emotions. Often this requires the help of a Personal Coach or Psychotherapist who deals with emotional eating. It is only by finding replacements for the comfort food provided that the individual can put food into its rightful place and learn healthy eating habits that last a lifetime.

It’s never too late to rethink on your diet plan and make fresh and realistic health resolutions. It is the right time to take stock of the situation. Ask yourself: Are we being fair to ourselves when we make these strict guidelines of diet and exercise? Most people recoil at the thought of dieting and exercising, especially on a cold winter morning. And for all those people who are fed up of diet dictums, the good news is that the best way to lose weight is not to diet or deprive yourself of all the good things in life. If this sounds too good to be true, wait till you try this:

Wellness – the latest buzzword to hit the health industry – is actually the best way forward. Most people who plan strict diets do it in the hope that after losing the extra kilos, they will look ravishing. But the truth is that lusterless sagging skin or loose abdominal muscles are not the result that people want. What we want is a happy, healthy, svelte figure munching an apple. But alas, that is not what we end up with very often. Therefore, after trying to lose weight for the nth time, it is now time to stop dieting forever and yet look slim.

Wellness is not only about losing weight, it is also about a positive mindset and transforming oneself into a holistically healthy person. This kind of a change in focus will not only result in weight loss but also give you great skin, good hair, a glowing persona and best of all, freedom from diets. Here is what the wellness and diet schedule entails:

• Understanding your food weaknesses and indulging in them two times a week.
• Maintaining a diet log book.
• Pick up a routine that you enjoy which is like an exercise: dancing, or walking the pet, floor exercises with music etc.
• Never deprive yourself. Always add new healthy habits to the current schedule, like having a yummy soup in the evening instead of tea and a scrumptious salad during lunch with olives, balsamic dressing and some greens and cheese cubes.
• Enjoy your meal. Many people who eat hurriedly always miss out on the flavors, do not feel satiated and end up compensating by overeating.
• And if all this does not convince you, count the number of times you have struggled through a diet program only to regain the weight with a few extra kilos.
• Looking at unhealthy habits and finding alternatives. For example, if you are prone to drinking too much of tea/coffee, substitute some for herbal teas which smell and taste good. If you eat too much of fried food, learn to make toasted snacks or baked snacks, and experiment with new roasted snacks.
• Do not starve or eat less. When we cut down on quantities, our emotional system retaliates, so the best option is to add healthy foods to the diet before cutting out on food suddenly.

There are certain healthy eating facts that don’t change no matter what kind of a diet you follow, or what kind of lifestyle you have.  First, whether you’re sedentary or active, too much saturated fat isn’t good for you.  Whether you eat 1600 calories a day or 2500, depending on your activity level, trans fats are unhealthy. Second, whether you’re trying to lose weight quickly or jump start a long-term weight loss program, fasting is not a good choice for your body and eliminating sugar (especially refined sugar) can go a long way in helping weightloss.

One of the healthy eating facts that we didn’t have to worry about years ago was that trans fats are unhealthy.  Some trans fats occur naturally in food, but those aren’t the same as the man-made trans fats that make up margarine and shortening, and are found in almost every commercially produced baked good you can find.  Trans fats are also often included in boxed mixes that you prepare at home and things like instant cocoa, because of its long shelf-life.

Hydrogenated fats like margarine and shortening became available in 1911.  Before then trans fats weren’t something the average consumer had to worry about.  Now, though, hydrogenated oils or trans fats are present in almost every type of food you can think of.  The hydrogenation process keeps fats from going rancid for a longer period of time. But the link between hydrogenated oils and heart health is clear—it’s worse for you than saturated fat.

This has prompted the government to step in.  They’ve insisted that fast-food restaurants reduce the amount of trans fats in their food.  Food manufacturers also have to include the amount of trans fats on their food labels too. Carefully read food labels so that you’re at least aware of what you’re eating.  Anything that says hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated is a trans fat and something you want to avoid as much as possible. Eliminate these trans fats from your diet completely if you can.

Another one of the healthy eating facts that not too many people think about is how bad regular soft drinks are for your health. A can of regular soft drink contains about 9 teaspoons of sugar. And how often do you drink more than one soda in a day?  Some people drink several sodas per day, preferring soda to beverages like water or tea.  Everyone’s going to eat sugar in some form, but moderation is called for.  And when one soda provides you with 9 teaspoons of sugar, that’s pretty much the sugar limit for the day—that we don’t need refined sugar at all is one of the most ignored healthy eating facts.  But most people have sugar in other forms too, raising their daily total of sugar intake much higher.

Considering the rising rates of obesity, diabetes and other diet-related illnesses, cutting back on trans fat and soda in our diets is important.  These healthy eating facts can make a huge difference in our weight and overall health if we don’t ignore them

If you need to lose weight, you’ve probably looked at some healthy eating weight loss diets and groaned in disappointment each time.  You’ve looked at diets that are supposed to be good for you while letting you lose weight.  Some claim you can eat things like fatty cheeseburgers and even fatty milkshakes (made with sugar substitutes).  While other diets claim that you can eat whatever you want as long as you keep your fat intake low. But chances are that they all restrict or forbid something you really enjoy, and you’re not looking forward to going without that favorite food.

What some people overlook is that you don’t necessarily have to follow a healthy eating weight loss diet that someone else claims is the best.  You can figure out how to eat on your own. The first step is to look at how you’ve been eating.  Obviously, if you need to lose weight you’ve been following a diet that provides you with too many calories.  If your diet is healthy overall but you’ve been eating too many calories, then you might not even need to change the way you eat much at all.  Increasing your daily exercise could be enough to help you lose weight.

If your diet needs an adjustment to become a healthy eating weight loss plan, though, you should look at the parts of your diet that seem unhealthy and adjust them. If you make too big a change from the way you like to eat, you’re setting yourself up to be unhappy with your new diet plan.  Instead, try to incorporate the things you enjoy into your new plan.

Your healthy eating weight loss plan might not be able to include doughnuts 3 or 4 times a week like you’ve been eating.  But the occasional doughnut as a treat might be acceptable if it fits within your allotted calories for that day.  You might be able to have a substitution for a doughnut a couple of times a week, though.  A whole grain bagel with fruit-flavored low-fat cream cheese, for instance, is a sweet treat that you could enjoy instead of a doughnut.  It might give you the same satisfaction while remaining healthier and truer to your healthy eating weight loss plan.

If you eat a lot of sweets like chocolate, you can still enjoy them in moderation.  Dark chocolate can be part of a healthy eating weight loss plan.  Dark chocolate contains more antioxidants that many fruits and vegetables.  So try dipping some of your favorite fruits like bananas, pineapple or strawberries in some high-quality melted dark chocolate for a powerful anti-oxidant punch that should satisfy your sweet tooth and keep you on your diet.

Almost any unhealthy treats you’re use to having can be substituted with a healthier food that gives you at least some of the satisfaction of the unhealthy treat.  Mashed cauliflower instead of buttery mashed potatoes, thin-crust vegetable pizza instead of take-out and other tricks can make your healthy eating weight loss plan more enjoyable.

One of the most important things to keep in mind when you’re evaluating healthy eating plans is moderation. It’s very unlikely that any eating plan that’s truly healthy will go to any extremes.  It should stress moderation in all things, not just in the balance of food eaten but in the amounts, too.

For instance, some diets that are marketed as healthy eating plans make claims that should alert you to their problems.  A diet that says you can eat unlimited amounts of almost anything probably isn’t really all that healthy.  One extreme example is a low-carbohydrate diet.  Many low-carb diets can be healthy for certain people.  But a few of the low-carb diets entice people to try them by talking about how you can eat all your favorite foods.

These supposedly healthy eating plans claim you can eat cheeseburgers, steaks, cheesecakes and a variety of other foods.  And often they’ll say that you can eat all you want of these foods and still lose weight.  They’re operating on the assumption that you’ll eat one or two cheeseburgers (without bread, of course), be full and stop.  But they do make the claim that you can eat all of them, essentially all the fat, you want and still lose weight.

That should be a signal to you that something’s wrong.  No diet that allows all the fat you want to eat can be truly healthy.  And if it allows unlimited amounts of saturated fat in particular, it’s probably unhealthy. Other healthy eating plans you’ll see advertised go the opposite direction and limit the amount of fat you can eat down to almost none, while allowing almost any kind of bread, pasta, and other foods like low-fat cookies and desserts that contain a lot of simple carbohydrates and sugar.

While low-fat cookies or cakes might be a nice treat on a low-fat diet now and then, they certainly can’t be eaten all the time.  That would make the sugar content of the diet decidedly unhealthy.  But that ability to eat low-fat sweet treats is often what’s used to convince people to follow the diet, because they can still have sugar and desserts.

When you’re judging healthy eating plans, checking what’s allowed on the diet is important.  But checking what isn’t allowed is important, too.  Moderation works both ways.  A diet that tells you that you must give up coffee completely or never again eat any kind of bread is taking that limitation to the extreme.  And if you like coffee or bread and still intend to have them at least now and then, each time you do you’ll feel like you’re cheating.  No one wants to have bad feelings about what they’re eating or drinking.

Choosing from among the diets out there can be daunting.  Choose a plan that doesn’t necessarily forbid you from eating anything, and doesn’t allow unlimited amounts of anything, either.  Choose from among the more moderate healthy eating plans, and you’re more likely to find the healthiest one for you.

To develop a healthy eating program to maintain a healthy weight, it’s a good idea to do some research on health and nutrition.  If you’re not trying to lose weight but just want to eat well for good health, then it’s important to understand how your body uses food.  This makes it easier for you to choose healthy food and not be tricked when less-than healthy foods call themselves natural and healthy.

A healthy eating program should offer you much more than just a good balance of protein, fat and carbohydrates.  But if that balance isn’t in place to start with, the plan probably isn’t all that healthy.  Any plan that keeps fat at about 30% or less of the diet and stresses good fats over saturated fats probably has a healthy fat balance.  There should be plenty of sources of protein other than meat, like lots of fish, healthy dairy sources like yogurt, and beans.

And carbohydrates should be mostly whole grain sources like whole grain bread and oatmeal.  Whole grain pastas are better than regular pastas, and basmati rice is better than regular white rice.  A healthy eating program that stresses these smart choices over things like instant white rice and instant pre-packaged sweetened and flavored oatmeal is better than one that includes too many convenience items.

A healthy eating program should follow the government food pyramid pretty closely.  Whole grain carbohydrates, fruits, vegetables, beans, fish, lean meat and dairy products can all be part of a very healthy diet.  But there are other things to look at, no matter what kind of diet you choose to follow.

You want to make sure your healthy eating program has enough diversity so that you don’t get bored, and you get all the vitamins and minerals your body needs.  Baked chicken breasts, broccoli and a whole grain roll might be a healthy lunch, but no one wants to eat that several times a week.  Your plan needs to include a variety of vegetables, not just one or two.  There are more lean meats than chicken breasts, and many different ways to prepare these and other dishes.

You’ll also want to make sure that unhealthy things aren’t creeping into your meals.  Some diets stress that you use margarine instead of butter, for instance, because it’s lower fat and not full of saturated fat like butter. But margarine is mostly trans fat, a fat that even the government now agrees is worse for you than saturated fat. It’s a fat that should be eliminated, or at the very least severely restricted, from our diets. A healthy eating program that allows certain commercially packaged low-fat cookies and treats might not take into account the amount of trans fats and sugar in those foods, either.

You have to be the detective and examine all the parts of the diet you want to follow.  Yes, the balance of foods and nutrition is important, but don’t forget to look at all the other parts of your healthy eating program.

With health food quick weight loss diets, you can lose those pounds you have wanted off quickly and healthily. Many of us have decided that we should lose a couple of pounds, either to be more healthy or to simply feel better about ourselves and how we look. We might have searched to try and find one of the many different ways to lose weight that are our there but have had no luck. If that is the case, then perhaps health food quick weight loss diets are for you.

While there are many different types of diets out there, some of them can be unhealthy for you, causing you to become weak and unable to perform your normal duties during the course of the diet. This can be quite an inconvenience to some who are struggling to lose weight. If you have been there, you might have found yourself trying to make time for friends and family, but simply feeling tired and exhausted all of the day. Eventually, it can get to you.

When your body tries to make do with less than it is able to, it can become weak and may make you more likely to become sick or get hurt. This can be very dangerous, especially if you continue to try to do the things you normally do. You might end up fainting or hurting yourself, which can be very dangerous if you are in a situation where you are alone. This makes these unhealthy diets very bad for you. With health food quick weight loss diets, you are able to lose the weight you want without having to risk these dangerous situation.

Health food quick weight loss diets work by providing you with healthy food, in healthy quantities, helping to ensure that your body gets all that it needs without providing you with excessive amounts of fats and calories that can make you gain weight. These diets help to ensure you maintain a healthy balance between the good and the bad while you are trying to lose weight to reach your ideal size. There are many advantages to these diets as opposed to other, possibly risky, diets.

If you are looking for a dieting plan that can help you lose weight and have been unable to find one that lets you keep your energy and strength up all while you are losing those pounds you wanted off, then these diets are right for you. In order to find the right one for you specifically, try searching online for health food quick weight loss diets. You will be able to find quite a few different ones and will be able to search through them to find the diet for you. Remember, nobody knows what you want and need better than you know yourself, so when searching for the diet, try to find the health food quick weight loss diets that fit your needs, not someone else’s.

It’s easy to balance a beam. Just put the same weight on both sides of a pivot. You can even lead a balanced life, by having a mixture of activities. But what is a balanced diet?

The same basic idea applies in all cases: not too much of this here, not too little of that there. But in the case of diet, what is it that gets balanced, exactly?

The answer is given by nutrition science, as graphically shown in the famed food pyramid. The basic guidelines are simple and based on sound nutrition. It’s this: get the right amount of carbohydrates, fats, protein, minerals and other needed compounds.

Carbohydrates are sometimes mistakenly looked at as unhealthy or not appropriate for dieters. Au contraire, carbohydrates are essential. They are the body’s foremost source of energy. Carbohydrates are broken down and put back together into various combinations of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, releasing energy along the way. That energy is used for cell repair, muscle movement and many other biological processes. In short, carbohydrates power everything we do.

About 50-60% of the total calories consumed daily should be in the form of carbohydrates. Slightly lower for those aiming at weight loss. That can be anywhere from roughly 150-400 grams per day. Every gram of carbs yields 4 calories. The wide range is the result of variation in diets. For a 2,000 calorie diet, for example, 50% is equivalent to 1,000 calories of carbs, or 250 grams. Some diets are focused on weight loss, others on muscle building, some on body fat reduction… the list is endless.

Fat often gets bad press, too. One reason is the fact that each gram yields 9 calories, so they’re ‘energy dense’. But they’re also the body’s ‘emergency energy supply’. Consumption of fat – of the right type and in the right quantities – is essential to a healthy diet. It is needed to create certain hormones and enzymes, to keep the brain and nerves healthy, to aid in storing fat soluble vitamins and a variety of other tasks.

But there are different types. A healthy, balanced diet will contain chiefly unsaturated fats, avoiding saturated and trans-fats. These should make up about 20-30% of the total daily calories intake. That’s about 25-40 grams per day.

Proteins are another vital component of the balanced diet. They’re broken down by digestion into amino acids, which are then reassembled into proteins used for growth, muscle building, cell repair and other functions. A healthy diet is comprised of 25-35% protein per day. That works out to, say, 165 grams or 660 calories daily (33%) for a diet of 2,000 calories.

Vitamins and minerals are the biochemical ‘facilitators’ in the diet. They add few calories, but are essential to getting all the needed reactions to take place. A wide variety of A, B-complex, C, D, E, K along with mineral elements like sodium, calcium, iron, zinc and others are a must. It would take an entire article just to list the names and amounts. A few of the major ones are:

Sodium: no more than 2,400 mg per day
Calcium: 1200-1500 mg per day
Iron: 15-20 mg per day
Zinc: 15-20 mg per day
Folic Acid (a B-complex vitamin): 400 mcg per day

Numbers are based on a 2,000 calorie per day diet for an average adult.

Calcium is used in bulk to build up bones. Iron is essential for making hemoglobin, a key component of red blood cells. Sodium is used to regulate the heart beat, in nerve fibers and elsewhere.

In theory a healthy, balanced diet – whether one designed for weight loss, weight training or just basic nutrition – can supply all the needed elements. But, leading busy lives can often cause individuals to forego some important aspects. Supplements, used wisely, can help in those cases.

The USDA Food Pyramid has been controversial since its first appearance in 1992. While it incorporated many valuable features, it led to some confusion. Attempts to clarify the guidelines it contained in 2005 were only partly successful. What’s the scoop?

The Original Food Pyramid

In an attempt to make dietary guidelines easy to follow, the U.S. government developed a graphic called the Food Pyramid. Both visually and with supplemental text it outlines how much of what type of food should be consumed daily.

For example, it recommended 6-11 servings of whole grains per day. On the whole, that’s good advice. Whole grains contain valuable fiber, essential fatty acids, valuable carbohydrates and more. Such things as oatmeal, whole grain bread and brown rice are definitely nutritious.

It also recommended 3-5 servings of vegetables daily. Leafy green vegetables contain needed vitamin A and C, bushy vegetables are rich in calcium and iron. All tend to be low in fat and calories, a definite boon to a weight conscious public seeking healthy weight loss guidelines. Again, good advice.

But it also had some drawbacks.

Nutritional science continues to grow by leaps and bounds. The number of well-done research projects, written up in professional journals, continues to increase. Many thought by the turn of the millennium that the Food Pyramid was simply getting outdated.

Worse still, the original recommendations contained some questionable suggestions even by the standards of the early 1990s. Three cups of whole milk or an 8 oz hamburger contain considerable fat along with their proteins. Yet fats were supposed to be consumed ’sparingly’. Fat is essential, but keeping the amount low is helpful to those seeking healthy weight loss. It also comes in different types. The pyramid didn’t give clear guidelines here.

The amounts recommended, too, were sometimes confusing particularly to those seeking healthy weight loss. The pyramid contained a recommendation of 2-3 servings daily of meat, poultry, fish, dried beans, eggs or nuts in order to get proteins. But this was meant to be a maximum. By contrast, it contained a recommendation for 2-4 servings of fruit, though the guideline was intended as a minimum.

Perhaps worst of all, the question arises: what is a serving?

The answer turns out to be highly confusing. It varies with the food being discussed.

In the grains section, a slice of bread is one serving. An ounce of cereal is one serving. In the vegetable area a 1/2 cup of broccoli is a single serving. But for raw, leafy vegetables a cup equals a serving. A cup of fruit equals one serving, unless it’s dried in which case 1/2 cup is a serving.

No one could possibly keep these things straight.

MyPyramid

The new food pyramid introduced in early 2005 was an attempt to overcome some of these difficulties. Regrettably, in some ways, it’s even worse. Using the interactive tool on the USDA website (http://www.mypyramid.gov/pyramid/index.html) yields such information as: ‘Eat a variety of fruit’ and ‘Eat at least 3 ounces of whole grain bread’ and ‘Eat more dark green veggies’.

However, there is an interactive applet that does a better job of providing more detailed information at MyPyramidPlan (http://www.mypyramid.gov/mypyramid/index.aspx). It may take more time, but the guidelines are more carefully tailored for specific age, weight and activity level.

Summary

The lesson to be learned is that diet and nutrition, especially for those seeking healthy weight loss, is a highly individual affair. It requires some attention to the details of what is consumed and what that contains. As with any intended approach to diet, seeking the advice of your physician is always wise.

Nearly everyone today worries about being overweight. We’re constantly inundated with messages from TV and the Internet about widespread obesity and the risks of being obese. Whether it’s health issues or social acceptance, no one wants to be fat.

But if you look at it from an evolutionary aspect, the ability to store excess calories in the form of fat cells is a very life-serving ability. When a person consumes more calories than the body uses for muscle movement, internal temperature maintenance and cellular repair the remainder is stored in the chemical bonds of fat cells. Technically, it’s stored in something called ‘adipose tissue’.

Energy – which calories measure – isn’t a substance, so it’s not the same as fat. But that energy becomes available for use when those fat molecules break down into simpler products. That happens when a person increases movement or otherwise triggers a need for more energy.

Carbohydrates are one major source of that energy. Sugars (chiefly glucose) and starches are the two main forms and they participate in something called the Krebs Cycle. Also known in scientific circles as the tricarboxylic acid cycle, but don’t bother trying to pronounce it. Sugars come in, get broken down into something called ATP, then into ADP releasing energy in the process.

When the body runs out of glucose to use in the cycle, it turns to stored body fat as a substitute. Breaking down those fat molecules is, in essence, what causes a person to decrease the percentage of body fat. Sometimes increased muscle mass results, so the final result isn’t always a net weight loss.

But in biology, as in life, everything is best in moderation. When more calories are consumed than used over a long period of time, body fat increases to the point that the health risks can outweigh the benefits of a ready supply of energy. The result is an increase in the odds of heart difficulties, diabetes and other real medical problems. The social consequences are equally well known.

Knowing this, many will strive to maintain their weight and percentage of body fat within a certain range. That range differs from person to person (people have different body types), season to season (winter fat can actually be healthy) and according to their individual BMI (Body Mass Index).

So, in order to decide whether you are obese, only moderately over the preferred weight range, or just lack muscle tone, you need to consider those factors. Doing so requires knowing your specific body type, the ability to calculate BMI (very simple, actually) and recognizing that there is no exact, static, ideal weight for you.